II-EN: Virgo 3 -- GPU Upgrade to the UTEP Distributed Computing Lab

University Of Texas At El Paso, El Paso TX

Investigators

Abstract

This project focuses on the upgrade of an existing computing cluster, Virgo-2, with Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) capability. The upgraded cluster, Virgo-3, will enhance the computational infrastructure of the Distributed Computing Laboratory (DCL) at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), as well as increasing access to HPC resources by UTEP researchers. Virgo-3 will be utilized by researchers to exploit the potential parallelism that exists in their computational workloads. The GPUs in Virgo-3 will significantly increase the research productivity of UTEP researchers, which will lead to more rapid discoveries in areas such as cardio-visualization and communication networks. A finite element model of the heart, as well as the human torso, can be analyzed more efficiently using GPUs as a result of the inherent data-level parallelism. This more efficient finite element analysis will accelerate the work of UTEP researchers to advance the field of electrocardiography. GPUs can also be used to provide cost effective speedup for discrete event simulation to improve the productivity of communication networks research, where forty percent of computation time for discrete event simulation is consumed by updates to the future event list. This research will explore the utilization of GPUs to speedup future event list manipulation. Additionally, Virgo-3 will be available to other researchers, so that they can utilize the benefits of distributed computing in their research activities. Finally, this project will have broad-based impact through summer computer camps that are targeted to underrepresented minority pre-college students in the El Paso, Texas region.